From soul-sucking job to the life you choose to live

Choose your wall

“If the ladder is not leaning against the right wall, every step we take just gets us to the wrong place faster.”

I use it when I am being assailed with another empty exhortation to ‘be in action’ or ‘JFDI’. I use use it when working with my coaching clients too when they get frustrated with process and want to run off and ‘do things’.

After you leave the Mothership, you are in a state that we all hate – uncertainty. We have been so well trained to do things, to execute plans, to implement strategies that we are not used to having to spend time thinking, reflecting, looking inwards. We are so used to being busy, to being active and goal-driven that we are often all at sea when the activity subsides and the only pressure and demands come from ourselves.

It at this point we think about our careers and start to wonder if we had the ladder up against the right wall. All that effort, worry, sacrifice and pain and what do we have to show, apart from the money? That money has helped us do things, it’s enabled to use look after those we care for and provide for our family, perhaps, but what has it done for us? When you weigh it all up, was it worth the cost?

Well, now it’s different. Now you get to choose the wall you put your ladder up against. In the midst of all the uncertainty, that is one thing you can guarantee. It’s going to be your choice. So take your time and choose wisely. Treasure the opportunity because it is a gift.